bukie

Actually, I have a roster question regarding minor league eligibility: Jordan Zimmerman was named the Nats' 5th starter, but he's not going to pitch until the end of April. How long can I keep him stashed on my minor league roster before I have to activate him? Until he gets called up, or until he actually exhausts his eligibility (not that I'll necessarily want to keep him there that long)?

Boo.

If the waiver order is the same as the draft owner, then I'll pick him up instead. Now you can feel reassured you can drop him.

I'm not sure your point? The conference is what it is. Cal has proven that if you recruit well and take care of your conference schedule you can get a high seed in the tournament. And really, outside of the big six conferences, only Gonzaga has shown to be able to keep that up consistently through multiple coaches. Remember, 15 years back, Calipari did exactly the same thing with Massachusetts, and they've faded back into obscurity since then. I'm not sure many coaches will jump at the chance to coach Memphis just because it's Memphis. They're in a second-tier conference, and I don't see any current coach from any of the big six conferences leaving their program voluntarily for Memphis (except for maybe DePaul).

See, I know Memphis has been really good the past 4 years, but how well did UMass do following Calipari's departure? I just think coaches will see going from the big six conferences to C-USA to be a step down, no matter if it is Memphis.

According to Sagarin's statistical measures, the Big East was a distant 3rd best conference going into the tourney behind the ACC and Big Ten overall, and have moved up to a very close second behind the Big Ten (yes, really). The top 5 are practically identical, though, which has never been the case before.

Memphis has only been a "surefire tourney team year in and year out" since every other good team and DePaul left Conference USA four years ago. Prior to that, during the Calipari years, they were regularly winning the less competent division of CUSA, but were always a borderline NCAA/NIT team. Prior to 2006, Memphis made the NCAA tournament on and off (in the Metro conference years), but were hardly a mainstay and advanced past the Sweet 16 once (since the expansion to 64 teams), as a 6 seed. In that conference, without Calipari, I'm not sure what kind of coaching draw there would be to go to Memphis.

The sooner everyone understands that the difference among the top 5 conferences this year (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10) was so microscopically small as to be unprecedented, the sooner conversation can return to a respectable level. The Big East was exceptionally top-heavy this year, and at the same time exceptionally bottom-heavy (seriously, the gap in quality from team 7 (WVU/Marquette) to team 8 (Providence/ND) was enough to fill an ocean's worth of water). Seven top 25 quality teams, for sure, but also 4-5 patsies (Seton Hall maybe, St. John's, South Florida, Rutgers, DePaul). The ACC had absolutely zero bad teams. Two consistently good teams at the top, but the league underperformed across the board in the tourney, aside from Maryland. The Big Ten had a clear best team (MSU) and a clear patsy (IU). Early-year Iowa aside, every other team in the league was capable of beating anyone else (including MSU) on a given night, home or road. Truly, the ACC and Big Ten were the two leagues closest to a "zero nights off" schedule. The Pac-10 had no clear best team, but had 3-6 very similar top-25 caliber teams (Washington, UCLA, Arizona State, Cal during the regular season and USC and Arizona during March) and only really one patsy (Oregon). The Big 12 was pretty well separated into threes: three top-tier teams (Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri), three tournament-level teams (Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M), three decent teams that could give a game on a given night (Baylor, K-State, Nebraska) and three patsies (Iowa State, Colorado, Texas Tech).

Gasaway's breakdown of yesterday's games.

Sagarin's conference ratings updated after Sunday's games: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkc0809.htm Of note, the top 5 conferences are basically identical.

77 free throws in the game, which seems like a made-up number to me. Then again, I'm used to watching an Illinois team that shot 5 free throws over a 2-game stretch.

Somebody owes the board a life savings.

How do you pick up your last 2 fouls when the other team is trailing by 10 with a minute to play?

- The Cubs win the division by 20 games, and win at least 2 playoff series. - The Cubs lead the NL in runs scored and runs allowed. - The NL wins homefield advantage in the World Series. - Milton Bradley plays over 120 games, mostly late in the season. - Fukudome figures out how not to bail on outside fastballs and maintains a near .400 OBP with a slightly higher SLG (~.425). - Harden makes over 25 starts. - Kevin Gregg saves over 30 games. Carlos Marmol saves under 20. - The Cubs make a midseason deal for a starting pitcher, SS, or 2B.

Petition for option "Lou Piniella's Cubs".

I love hearing that... I hope its true about the World Series thing. i think they're being awfully generous, unless they have a different definition of "down the line" and "foreseeable future" than i do. i think this needs to be the year. Well, the phrases are vague enough that "down the line" could be "come November" and foreseeable future could be "this spring".

Does Theriot actually go the opposite way a lot more often than he pulls the ball, or is that another case of my perception lying to me?

Does anyone still want to draft besides Todd and I? EDIT: Actually, I think I'm done, as I like the guys I have better than the guys that are available at this point.

Expected by seeding: Big East: 5 Big 12: 3 ACC: 3 Pac 10: 1 (but Washington, not Arizona) Big Ten: 1 A-10: 1 West Coast: 1 C-USA: 1

So, the biggest round 2 upset was a 5 seed over a 4 seed. Also the only round 2 upset.

That's pretty ignorant, unless your definition of stunk is "anything outside of perfection". I think his definition of stunk is "anything the Big Ten does." I mean, I'm fully in agreement that Illinois stunk. Sure, they were playing without their senior starting PG and still made a game of it when they woke up, but for 37 minutes, they stunk. Minnesota? Stunk (and probably the most questionable BT selection). If Michigan stunk, then I guess they stunk less than Clemson. The Purdue game was the opposite of the Illinois game. They owned about 37 minutes of the game, and then let it get interesting at the end.

The Big Ten still stinks because it was supposed to go 2-2 and went 2-2? Yes. It was supposed to stink and it has stunk. That's pretty ignorant, unless your definition of stunk is "anything outside of perfection".

:(

Don't think I'll be able to watch much sports the rest of this week.

Open pondering: the Illini have gone into full-court press 4 times to get back into games, and it worked for 3 of them (well, they got back into the games 3 times). Why not do that for the rest of the freaking game?!?